The Past Doesn't Change
by AthroughZ
Summary: One year after being abducted, Spencer Reid's girlfriend's unsub is back at it again.


Author's Note: New Story for all of the Criminal Minds fans out there.

I am new to the Criminal Minds writing thing and haven't quite mastered the terminology quite yet but I will get there.

If you have any comments or questions, leave a review and I will get back to you.

This is also on Archive of Our Own!

* * *

 _She was Brave_

 _And Strong_

 _And Broken_

 _All at Once._

 _-Anna Funder_

* * *

 _1 Year Ago_

 _It was hard to contain the fear that ran through her veins as she sat in the make shift prison cell in the basement of some serial killer's house. She knew that this was all her fault; she should have known better than to go after him on her own but she was too upset that her best friend, Kelcie had died at his expense. Spencer had warned her not to go after him but she didn't listen, even if all the signs pointed to this. And now all she had left was hope; hope that Spencer and the rest of her team would find her before he raped her again._

* * *

 _"_ _Spence?" the blonde FBI agent tenderly said her friend's name; the nickname she'd given him. JJ was careful not to startle her friend as she walked into what they called their briefing room. She wanted to comfort him because of the anguish she saw on his face and she didn't blame him for letting his emotions take over. Not after the video he'd watched that his girlfriend of five years sent to him only to realize that it wasn't her that sent it. "I know-"_

 _"_ _I don't need to hear your words of encouragement or for you to tell me that you know how I'm feeling, JJ. How could you possibly know how I am feeling?" he snapped at her. It was harsher than what he had intended but he couldn't stop the emotions from affecting him._

 _JJ didn't say anything but he could see the apologetic look in her eyes. He just took a deep, shaky breath and wrapped his arms around his torso. "I don't know what I'm going to do if she doesn't survive, JJ. I don't know if I'll get past it."_

 _JJ once again didn't say anything but stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him. She rests the side of her head against his arm, trying not to cry herself. The BAU was one big family and when somebody's loved one was taken from them and involved in a case, it hit home._

 _"_ _Where is he?" Derek Morgan's voice could be heard from the main room of their office. Spencer didn't even register that the man that he looked up was there; that he had came back specifically for him. All he felt was numb. Watching what that man had done to his girlfriend had broken him and now he couldn't even string anything together to help them with this case._

 _JJ steps aside as Derek walks into the room and she watches as his face falls, sharing the same feeling that the rest of the team held when they looked at Spencer's face. "We're gonna find her, Spence. It's going to be okay. You were there for me when Savannah got shot and I'm going to be here for you; there will be no other outcome other than Aurelia coming home, alive. I promise you that and when we find that sick son of a bitch he is gonna pay, you hear me?" Derek had hugged Spencer and then had grabbed him by the side of his head to make him listen to him and so he could look at him. "Do you hear me, kid? She is going to be okay."_

 _Spencer looked at him, the only man he considered his older brother and he wanted to believe him but he couldn't. The man that had taken his Aurelia had been doing things like this for almost two years and hadn't been caught yet. The girls he took always wound up tortured, raped, and then killed. How would Aurelia be any different?_

 _"_ _You don't know that. He has been doing this for two years and hasn't been caught yet; who's to say that this is the time that he gets caught?" He couldn't help but let the pain into his voice because it was the only thing that he could think about. "We know it's only a matter of when, Derek, not if."_

 _The anger flashed through Derek's eyes as he looks at Dr. Spencer Reid, the man who was literally a genius and knew more than anybody in the room break down. Derek hadn't ever seen him like this; not even when Maeve had been killed in front of him and it only made him angrier that somebody was doing this to Spencer, to Aurelia._

 _"_ _No, you don't get to break down like this, Reid. Aurelia needs you to fight for her so we can save her, okay? You can't just give up hope." Derek had tried to speak to the rational side of Spencer but it didn't look like it registered within Spencer and Derek didn't know what else he could do._

* * *

 _She sat in the cage, the tears silently streaming down her face. She wasn't sure how long it had been that she had been locked in the prison cage. She wondered if Spencer was working hard to try to find her but she felt it was going to be too late. He had told her a little about the case and she knew enough that the girls that were taken by this particular man always ended up dead; the profile told her that. The profile that she had helped create but that wasn't going to save her now._

 _"_ _Please hurry, Spence," she whimpered to herself and she jumps when she hears the maniacal laugh of the man. So she stands up, hoping that would help her have some sort of defense when it came to him._

 _"_ _Do you really think Dr. Spencer Reid and the rest of your team of goons are going to save you?"_

 _He had said it with a tone of disbelief in his voice, as if the thought was so insane that he couldn't keep quiet._

 _"_ _They will," she boldly replied to him, her voice unwavering._

 _He laughs again before she hears him unlock the door to the cage. She steps backwards, already terrified of him. It hadn't taken much for her to be that terrified of him. Especially after he killed a woman right in front of her and then raping her on video._

 _"_ _Maybe it will be too late, Aurelia," he hissed as he stepped into the prison cell. She tries to keep her eyes on him as he turns on a lamp, adding a little more light to the cell. "I want to see you again. Take your bra off."_

 _She didn't want to, she didn't want to give him what he wanted. She shakes her head no and he growls, the noise louder than any growl she had heard before and before she can scream, he was directly in front of her and had a hand in her hair, pulling it so he could jerk her head back._

 _"_ _I do not think that that was a question that you could object to," he hissed in her ear, his lips right next to it. "I was just going to look but I think I have changed my mind."_

 _He spins her around, her back to him and he forcefully bends her over the small cot like bed. She lets out a scream, the noise echoing through the empty basement. She screams louder as she feels him pull her panties down._

 _"_ _Scream all you want, princess," he grunts as his fingers find their way inside of her as he undoes his pants with his other hand, his weight pinning her down. "I'm going to show this to your boy genius."_

 _She screams again, the tears streaming down her face. She tried to fight and push him off, but he was stronger than her and he kept her pinned down with his weight as he forced himself inside of her._

* * *

 _Luke walked into the room where they kept the board of everything that they had on the guy that took Aurelia. He ran a hand over his face as he looked over the board, trying to piece it together himself. He knew that Spencer wouldn't come in there anymore and that Spencer had already came to the conclusion that she was as good as dead. But that was something that Luke couldn't accept._

 _"_ _I keep looking at it too," Rossi sighed as he walked into the room, looking at the big moveable board that had the pictures of the killer's previous victims then a recent picture of Aurelia. "There's just one thing I don't understand.."_

 _Luke turned his attention to the older man and raised a brow. "What's that?"_

 _"_ _He's been so calculated and meticulous since this all started and he knew that Aurelia is a member of the FBI, so why take her?" Rossi moved closer to the board, looking at the previous victims then looking at Aurelia. "He knows that it's only a matter of time now. And she's not even his type. All of his other victims had brown hair and brown eyes, Aurelia has green eyes and almost white blonde hair. It doesn't make any sense why he'd take her."_

 _Luke looked at the previous victims himself. There was Bailey Franklin who had be twenty at the time of her abduction. She had been held for five days and had been tortured and raped before he killed her and disposed of her on the side of the road. Then there was Aubrey Bakersen who had been kept the same amount of time as Talia but had only been raped but not tortured. Then there was Uma Inders who was eighteen and had the same looks as the other two. There didn't seem to be such a pattern between his victims and the way he did things other than their looks._

 _"_ _I don't know, it's been bugging me since Aurelia had been taken." Luke looks out the window and sees Spencer Reid sitting at a desk, staring straight ahead with a blank look on his face. "How's he doing?"_

 _Rossi turns his attention to Spencer then sighs. "The best he can, I think. I think he's already resigned himself to the fact that she's dead. He knows that this unsub doesn't leave any of his victims alive and none of them have been able to escape."_

 _Luke sighs before turning back to the board and frowning. "I...wait. Look at the letters of their names, Rossi. The first letters of their first name spell out BAU and the first letters of their last name spell out FBI all except for Aurelia's best friend, Kelcie that can't be coincidence.."_

 _Rossi looks at the names and the letters and the realization hits him square in the chest. "He's been planning this all along. He's wanted our attention from the get go and when he didn't get it after the first three murders, he knew that he could get Aurelia's attention when he took Kelcie and then killed her. He was after Aurelia the entire time."_

* * *

 _She sat in the corner of the cage, shivering and trying not to cry. He had turned off the lights and made her sit in the dark while he went upstairs. She only felt relief when he left but she was terrified of the thought that he could come back downstairs at any moment. Any time that he dropped something on the floor above her, she'd flinch or any time she could hear a door open, she'd shrink back into the corner of the cage._

 _"_ _Please God, let them find me," she whispered to herself and she flinches again as the door opens to the stairs and she hears his heavy steps on the stairs as he comes back downstairs. He flips just one set of lights on, the cage only getting dimly lit as he sits down in a chair directly in front of the cage._

 _He looked at her and she wanted to be invisible as she can feel his eyes on her. She closes her vibrant green eyes and buries her head in between the space between her torso and knees. She didn't even want to look at him._

 _"_ _Your team still thinks that they can find you in time, Aurelia." He smiles at him, a smile that she could feel deep inside of her soul without even seeing it. "But they don't know who I am but I'm going to tell you a little bit about me, so listen up."_

 _She doesn't move her head up and she yelps when he gets up and kicks the cage. "I said listen up!" He had shouted at her and she lifts her head up reluctantly. "That's much better."_

 _She watched as he sat back down in his chair, his grey-blue eyes on her as he makes himself comfortable. Her face was tear stained and dirty from all the times he'd raped her already. "My name is Oliver Sanders and I grew up here in Iowa, just like you did. I had a normal life except for the fact that my father was a serial rapist and he let me know about it. He even made me watch him rape those girls. So you can see, I was destined to turn out this way."_

 _She didn't care that they had had the profile entirely wrong; he hadn't been sexually abused like she and her team had thought. But he had been abused in a way she didn't know how to explain. But she definitely didn't care anymore._

 _"_ _I watch the news like a normal guy and I see guys get in trouble for the things I do all the time. You want to know why I haven't been caught yet?" She could hear the smirk in his voice as he explains things to her. "Because I haven't done anything stupid. At least not yet. You see, I wanted your attention and your team's attention. And I knew that taking you was my ultimate desire…"_

 _She tried not to glare at him, knowing how that angers him to almost the point of hurting her again. She was only thankful that he hadn't tortured her yet, only forced himself on her._

 _"_ _I've been watching every press conference that you and that team of yours have held over the years. And I watched you and I saw how strong and beautiful you were and I wanted to be the one to break you," He laughed as he grabs the bottle of vodka that he purposely left down in the basement and takes a swig of it. "I want to be the one known as the one who broke Aurelia Anderson, the girlfriend of the BAU's resident genius and the girl who holds her own against other serial killers. I've watched how you've taken down men that you've classified as scarier than I am. Monsters like Mr. Scratch or Foyet, the man that ruined Aaron Hotchner's family."_

 _She couldn't help but glare at him and she lost her cool. "Shut up! You don't know anything about Hotch. Or about my team. We may have been wrong about the profile but you are a narcissist. And you think that you're the superior serial killer but you'll be caught."_

 _He glares at her and sets the bottle down before getting up. She knew he was going to come into the cage and probably sexually assault her again, but she didn't care. She braces herself as he unlocks the cage and he charges toward her and then pulls her up to her feet by her hair. He slams her into the bars behind her before jerking her hair, forcing her to look at him._

 _"_ _You think you're strong and brave, but don't worry, I'll break you." He smirked at her, his hand fastening the handcuffs on her then moving her hands up above her head to cuff them onto the bar of the cell. "Don't think that just because you're some FBI agent that I'm going to be scared of hurting you."_

 _She breathes in and out, heavily as she looks up at her hands before she screams as he cuts a shallow line along the side of her left rib cage with his pocket knife. Tears fall down her cheeks and he stops cutting her. "Not so tough now are you?" he hissed at her, watching as the blood came out of the shallow wound._

 _She hadn't felt a pain like that before, the searing white hot pain of being cut open. He just watches the pain flicker on her face before he closes the knife and puts it back in his pocket. "You know how else I'm going to break you, Aurelia?" He moved closer before squatting down and pulling her underwear down to her knees. "I'm going to make you enjoy this."_

 _She closes her eyes, knowing exactly what he was going to do. She feels the tears slip down her face and he pushes her legs apart._

* * *

 _On the fourth day in the makeshift prison cell, she had started to accept her fate of death. She had cuts and bruises all over and she was weak and tired. She wanted him to just get it over with because the rape and torture was worse than death. She flinches as she hears him stomp down the stairs and she tries to shrink back into the mattress of the bed that was in the cell. He doesn't say anything as he unlocks the door to the cage and she doesn't move as he walks over to her._

 _"_ _Get up." The command was simple and she just looks at him before standing up and he roughly shoves an oversized white t-shirt over her naked body and she looked confused for a moment before he ties a blindfold over her eyes and then binds her hands in front of her. "Time to go."_

 _She doesn't even cry as he hoists her over his shoulder and carries her out of the cell and up the stairs. She just accepted her fate, thankful that it was about to be over. She counts his steps, having mastered the way he moved and how many stairs there were by now. She knows when he reaches the top of the stairs and moves through the kitchen. She hears him open a door and then she feels the cool, autumn breeze hit her skin. She wasn't sure what they were doing outside but she didn't want to question him. She yelps a minute or so later when he tosses her in the trunk of his car and she flinches when he slams it shut. She couldn't remember if it was day or night._

 _"_ _I'm so sorry, Spence." She whispered to herself, a single tear rolling down her cheek from under the blindfold, unable to control her emotions anymore._

* * *

 _Spencer had only slept a grand total of two hours in the past four days and he glances at the clock and sighs as it reads 2:34 am. They hadn't gotten any closer to find Aurelia or the serial killer and he had already accepted the fact that his girlfriend was dead. He rubs his tired eyes as he stares at the board, which was all he had been doing for the past several days._

 _"_ _How ya doing kid?" Derek sat down next to him and clapped his shoulder, rubbing in what was supposed to be a comforting way. Spencer doesn't even react. "She's going to be okay. We're going to-"_

 _"_ _No, we're not. He only keeps the girls for five days and kills them on the fifth day then dumps them in a ditch as if they were nothing to him. Don't say that she's going to be okay or that we're going to find her." Spencer was on edge. He'd had too little of sleep and too much coffee and it made him jittery. "It's pointless to hope that we're going to find her because time has literally run out."_

 _Derek didn't know what to say to comfort the younger man so he just sat there with him, trying to be there for him in any way that he could. Their attention is turned to the center of the Le Mars, Iowa police department as they began to move toward the front doors. Spencer frowns before looking at Derek who shrugs before somebody shouts, "Call an ambulance! She's alive!"_

 _Derek pushes Spencer up and they both hurry to the front of the station to see Aurelia standing there, in a white t-shirt with the words, "You will never catch me," on the front of it in what appeared to be blood. Spencer feels his heart drop as he looks at his girlfriend as she stands there, her eyes blank. "Aurelia?"_

 _Aurelia looks up to see Spencer's eyes and she feels the tears trickling out of her eyes and down her face. She was still so scared and confused as to why he had let her live and she moves to Spencer and hugs him close around his neck. Spencer carefully hugs her back, tears streaming down his own face; both of sadness and happiness. He couldn't believe that she was still alive and that she was there, in his arms._

 _"_ _I'm so sorry, Spence. I shouldn't have...I should have…" she stammered out but she couldn't get the words out._

 _He just hugs her closer to him, knowing that she has a long road ahead of her. "Do not apologize, Aurelia. This...is not your fault." He had grasped her cheeks in his hands and had looked into her eyes, trying to reassure her that it was not her fault. "I am sorry I couldn't find you sooner."_


End file.
